TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — A driver’s urgent wave and a veteran police officer’s infant first-aid training came together during a roadside emergency that officials say saved a one-week-old baby’s life.
Tuscaloosa Police Officer Dallas Gantt was on patrol at about 10 a.m. July 9 near James Harrison Jr. Parkway and Fourth Court East when two women flagged him down, according to a newly published WBRC report that includes interviews with Gantt and Police Chief Michael Baygents.
Gantt told the station he initially thought he was approaching a possible domestic dispute because someone was yelling from the vehicle. The situation became clear when a woman stepped out holding an infant who was not responsive.
Training takes over
Gantt called for paramedics and began infant first-aid measures after the mother handed him the baby. He described positioning the infant and delivering back thrusts. After several tense seconds, the baby made a sound—an indication to Gantt that the child was breathing again.
“I’m glad I was able to save the baby’s life,” Gantt told WBRC.
The officer said he heard milk or formula leave the baby’s mouth during the response and believed the child had choked. ThinBlueNews is treating that as Gantt’s account, not an independent medical diagnosis. The public report does not provide a hospital record or a separate medical explanation for why the infant stopped breathing.
Paramedics took over when they arrived. WBRC reported that the baby survived. ThinBlueNews is not publishing the child’s name, the mother’s name or other identifying details because the subject is a newborn and those details are not needed to understand the documented lifesaving response.
A 30-year officer’s quick decision
Baygents told the station he was not surprised by Gantt’s response, describing the officer as quick and decisive. The chief also emphasized that Gantt remembered training he had received years earlier and applied it under pressure.
Gantt has served with the Tuscaloosa Police Department for 30 years, according to the WBRC interview. The City of Tuscaloosa’s official Facebook Page also publicly recognized the response in August, saying Gantt administered lifesaving measures after being flagged down and that the infant had resumed breathing by the time medical personnel arrived. Because Facebook did not expose a stable signed-out post permalink during this review, ThinBlueNews is linking the verified official Page identity rather than inventing a post URL.
The moment underscores a less visible part of patrol work: officers may be first to encounter medical emergencies before an ambulance reaches the scene. In this case, the decisive action was not specialized equipment or a prolonged operation. It was recognizing an unresponsive infant, summoning medical help and correctly recalling first-aid steps in seconds.
Readers can find more verified acts of service in our police hero stories, police rescue news and positive police news sections.
Sources and visual disclosure
- City of Tuscaloosa — official government Facebook Page, which published the August recognition summarized above.
- WBRC — Aug. 25 report with interviews of Officer Dallas Gantt and Chief Michael Baygents.
- Wikimedia Commons — downtown Tuscaloosa River District context photograph by RhYno12, CC0.
Visual note: the featured image is a licensed context photograph of downtown Tuscaloosa, not the July 9 emergency and not a photograph of Officer Gantt. No incident image is implied. The image was dedicated to the public domain under CC0; ThinBlueNews added the crop, hook, context warning and credit.
If an agency representative or reader sees anything that should be corrected or updated, please contact ThinBlueNews through our corrections and editorial standards page.